Post Your Build Thread

I’ve seen a few threads around where people are posting their builds, but those threads are getting lost in the throng of other posts on the forum. So, I present to you, a build thread.

Post your favorite builds here.

Be sure to post as many details about your build and how you play it so others may benefit from your knowledge.

Also, feel free to ask for advice on your build as well.

Note: I’ve noticed an error some people get when linking to their builds at gw2skills.net. This is due to a semicolon (;) in the URL. If there’s a semicolon in your url, please use a URL shortener (tinyurl.com or bit.ly) until we are able to fix this error with linking and semicolons. Thanks!

Mostly this is a farming / dynamic events build. It’s designed to be tough to kill while dealing out decent damage. The point spread is not optimized — it gives me access to specific traits that I want, such as both the increased Sword and Pistol cooldowns in the same line.

I’ll update with a PvP build when I get more experience in that realm.

I’m largely un-killable. granted in mass fights you can be zerged down, and i sometimes swap out blink for arcane thievery if i think ill need to escape a fight instead of be semi aggressive. basically I just play distract while my team mates kill stuff while helping people up with illusion of vengence (WHICH IS OP!)

Staff for some aoe and chaos armors scepter and focus for reflecting attacks warden and a block. as well as a wall of swiftness.

All that plus null field clones a 15 second heal that removes conditions and reflects attacks….. yeah…..

This is my main set up for dungeons and regular PVE content. My weapon sets mainly are GS and Sceptor/Focus Tho i switch weapons alot for different reasons and depending on the situation such as if i was fighting a boss i would probably switch the GS to a Staff. Though if i wanted to go melee i would use Sword/Sword combo.

My Utilities shown are my dungeon utilities which i use to block range atks and cure allies status as well as removing boons from enemies. then i use Mantra of Resolve just for myself tho i might substitute that for Arcane Thievery if i’m fighting a boss that uses alot of boons.

Now my traits center around a Phantasmal build where i mainly focus on having 3 if possible or atleast 2 phantasms and 1 clone out during a fight. To sum up my build, my Phantasms do 30% more dmg, they have retaliation and also give regen to nearby allies(even can give regen to each other if they are close by which is nice). My Focus skills reflect which is AMAZING in dungeons and in any fights where there are alot of projectiles because warden by himself would just block the atks but with Warden’s Feedback he can take out powerful enemies without taking dmg. Also Temporal Curtain reflects projectiles which is also helpful. Now back to the regen, i also get regen when my health goes below 75% which then gives me Protection from Illusionary Membrane and since my phantasms also give me regen i can get protection each time they give me regen. All my Illusion skills have -20% recharge which is handy(and with Warden’s Feedback my Warden has -40% recharge). now shatter inflicting confusion is something i only use if i have a scepter out to stack with confusing images.

Now there are traits that specifically buff me which Compounding Power gives me 3% more dmg for each illusion i have out while Illusionary Defense gives me 3% reduced dmg for each illusion out which also includes clones so for the tiems when my phantasms are on CD i can still do out more dmg and take reduce dmg. and then last i have Mender’s Purity which removes a condtion when i heal which i use becuase it seems like in higher area’s im always under a condition and its amazing because it removes the condition before u heal so it can nullify the effects of poison.

As far as armor stats go i have gone with Power/Vit/Condition as my set up on my armor. idk if its the ideal but it gives me alil bit of everything for how i like my build and vit is nice to have which gives me a nice amount of HP.

As far as actual combat goes outside of dungeons i normally dont have a strategy when it comes to using weapon skills besides summoning my phantams so i do end up switching weapons alot during combat tho if i have focus equiped i usualy put warden on any range atkers 1st then let him get the aggro and solo those enemies while i take out any melee enemies. For dungeons i mostly play offensive support. i try to make sure my team is safe while removing conditions while i can and i also take care of range enemies and remove and control boons on enemies. Mesmers are very versatile in combat.

I love my build, keeps me alive, does decent dmg and thats all that matters to me atleast. i dont think my build is very popular cause of the few mesmers i do actually talk to all mention that my build probably isnt effective cause phantams die quickly but u’d be surprised how much dmg a clone and phantasm can take from regular enemies. Keeps me active atleast.

Basically a Phantasm build, Pure PvE dps build, Usually I open up with Greatsword by the time the mob comes close swap to sword. Always dps first before summoning a phantasm so the mobs dont go for them. In long fights with 3 phantasms up, it is a beast for dps. (Note i dont shatter unless its near death, having 3 illusions up increases dmg by 9%)

Time warped with 3 wardens up once on the dragon, all i saw was numbers spamming my screen its epic.

Standard Heal = Ether Feast – almost always have illusions up, easily heal of choice.
Standard Utility = Decoy, Mirror Images, Signet of Illusions – simply ways to make your illusions more persistent. Easy to always have something up, or to make them last longer for free hp tanking.
Standard Elite = Moa Morph (Really use whatever you need, these are all really situational.)

Writing out the key points behind each of the traits..
Illusionary Elasticity ; Helps to buff up your own auto attacks, and apply conditions faster. This also pushes your GS damage with 2.

Sharper Images, Critical Infusion ; Adds more crits to stack the bleeding on, and also the Vigor helps to be able to evade much more often once you start critting.

Phantasmal Fury, Phantasmal Haste, Empowered Illusions – For pushing out damages in those fights where you can keep your Phants up. Also help out a nice bit with GS Phant while taking down mobs of enemies.

Illusionary Defense, Compounding Power ; Useful considering you will almost always have some illusions up.

Deceptive Evasion, Illusionists Celerity ; All ways to help you push out more clones as they go down. They save you HP and add importantly to damage.

Metaphysical Rejuvenation – Some extra hp to help out. Not a key point I guess, but worth mentioning.

Illusion of Vulnerability, Illusionary Retribution, Shattered Strength – These three are more or less just there to me, as I normally don’t shatter much at all. With the exception of those fights where you just cannot keep the clones alive, then these are somewhat useful.

The main playstyle is to basically have 3 illusions down at the start of every fight. Normally walking around with staff out.

Phase Retreat + Mirror Images = 1
Phase Retreat + Decoy + Phantasmal Warlock = 2
Phase Retreat + Phantasmal Warlock + evade(Deceptive Evasion = 3
Normally one combination of these will be up at some point to be able to be used vs a single enemy. (Feel free to use evade as needed, this is probably one of my most pressed keys with the Deceptive Evasion trait.)

Vs multiple enemies, if you are alone stick with the staff. Every time you target a new foe, pop another illusion, preferably a clone for the bouncing attacks. This allows you to ‘tank’ many enemies while still dealing nice damage with the clone conditions, even though the base damage is rather low, the condition damage is dealt in full the same as your own. Round them up into a circle if you can, and use Chaos Storm to bring them down faster. Optionally swap to GS after Chaos Storm and use 2-4-3 and then 5 to finish if they are still in position for it. Just clear the fight with GS then swap back to staff to start. Alternatively when in a party setting, maybe running for a fast map clear or going through events, I tend to mainly use GS as the upfront damage will actually get you kill credit, which is an issue with staff condition damage not always going out fast enough, though Chaos Storm is good. 2-4-3-5 is almost always the order I would use my skills in to maximize damage. You could also Mind Wrack after this if you are sure it will finish the enemies off, however if there are a lot you might be better leaving your clones up to eat some damage rather than getting dived on by the targetless mobs.

Dungeon Runs – Mainly GS for clearing ‘trash’ mobs going through the instance. Great way to burn through the non silver/gold mobs that often accompany them, feel free to switch to staff after they are dead, or to pop Chaos Storm on top of the GS combo. Staff is normally pretty reliable single target dmg with Phantasmal Warlocks once all the little stuff is dead.

I would classify most bosses into two types. The type where you can actually keep Phants alive and the kind where you can’t. In the ones you can, chances are you will want to stick with staff and keep up 3 Phantasmal Warlocks as they deal some wicked sustained damage in party or world events with how many conditions get put on. You might lose some auto damage with the staff’s conditions being overstacked, but the heavy damage from the Warlocks is quite good.

The other type is the ones where they have constant AoE’s and your Phants won’t stay up long enough to get off more than 1 attack. This is probably the only time I rely heavily on shatters, I’ll through up my illusion making abilities and simply Mind Wrack every time its up. This build specs into making illusions quite quickly, so putting up 3 every 15 seconds isn’t much of an issue at all. I also normally run GS for these types of fights. Against world bosses your staff damage will get totally eaten due to overstacked conditions. In dungeons it can still vary, but the actives on the GS will probably put out more damage than just auto attacking with your staff would.

I think that just about covers the standard directs for fighting. Gear wise, for leveling greens start with condition damage at lower levels, and build into precision/toughness until you can get Rampager’s items 60+. Could probably put more into this but at the moment this is what I got.

My build focuses on:
*heavy shatter and
*constant movement,
its very fun. Weapons are pretty interchangeable though weapons with blinks an teleports are best.

I run:
*10/20/0/10/30
with the main traits of the build being:
*Mental Torment (1 Dom) for the 20% mind wrack damage.
*Deceptive Evasion: (X Duel) For the clone production on dodge
*Vigorous Revelation (III Insp) For the vigor gain on shatter (helps constantly keep up vigor)
*Illusionary Persona (XIII Illu) For the shatter effect on self.

The utility slots are pretty interchangeable too, but i like feedback for its utility, mirror image for quick burst damage (though decoy can be used instead for better survive), and illusion HP signet for the HP and the active to regain shatters if i realllly need to.

I dodge around trying to constantly up keep 3 clones and vigor while avoiding enemy aggro, I have extra movement with Phase retreat (staff #2) and Illusionary Leap (sword #3)

A quick burst in a battle will basically be St #2, Dodge in, weap swap, Sw #3, Mind wrack with 4 hits then dodge out.
That’s just in terms of clones, adding in sw#2 and chaos storm ect help ramp up damage.
I try and keep mind wrack on CD all the time and Cry of frustration if i can. If both are on CD i keep the clones out for sharper images proc, preferably with iDuelist and staff clones.

When possible, I open with my staff, creating a chaos storm over my destination, switch over to sword and Blink into the fray, relying on my barrage of crits, with currently 78% critchance when my sigil is fully stacked, in union with sigil of fire in the other sword, to crash down onto the pack of enemies like the hammer of Lyssa herself. … Okay, granted, Lyssa most likely wassn’t using a hammer, but you get my meaning.

Arcane Thievery along with Null Field keep me safe and sound in the hostile enviroment of orr that just loves to slap you with conditions ten times over.

The bonus from six runes of Lyssa, together with Timewarp, turn me into a devestating blender for a few seconds, what I can use to burst dow even veteran mobs and its minions fast enough before getting into serious trouble myself.

As for my clones, they create a bit of a “Screwed if they do, screwed if they dont.” condition for my enemies. Since I create a clone everytime I dodge, along with my ussual summoning skills, there are almost constantly wo or more illusions on he field. They share my crit-chance, so they can keep bleeding up rather constantly, while my phantasmic swordmaster deals some considerable damage on top of it.
But if they are killed, they explode violantly and leave conditions.

I wear full Ravager equipment, with power, precision and condition damage, and feel well pepared for the horrors of orrr and what is there to come.

Dedicated PvP Conditions Build.
The build focuses on stacking up conditions on the enemy and simply outlasting them.
Staff clones are by far your most useful clones, as they stack on conditions just as effectively as you do, so its important to refresh them when possible. This isn’t hard thanks to the 6.5 second cooldown on Phase Retreat.
You can kite your foes with ease using this build, as they simply must kill your illusions unless they want to eat 10+ stacks of bleed and your illusions, conveniently, cripple enemies on death.

Be sure to place your Chaos Storm so that you and your enemy are inside it, making sure your clones are inside it too is great as well, as it will keep them alive.
Summoning a Phantasmal Warlock will come in handy, it applying regeneration will begin to remove conditions from you and grant you protection, making you unbelievably tanky with your high toughness and vitality.

For utilities, I take Signet of Domination, that stun is fantastic and more condition damage is just what you need. Apart from that, Decoy, Blink and Mirror Image al come on handy. Either decoy or blink is pretty much required for escaping and confusion purposes, personally I use Decoy on maps where you can’t blink over cliffs or onto platforms because it helps drop target and creates another illusion for you.
Mirror Image is your best bet for pure firepower, though, as instantly generating two winds of chaos spamming illusions is just great for your condition stacking.

For Runes, I personally like Runes of the Undead for the bonus toughness and even more Toughness -> Condition Damage conversion, but Runes of the Nightmare are also an option.
For Sigils, I like Sigil of Battle on my Staff, so swapping back to it gives me a very nice offensive boon for a short time. On my sword, I like to have a Sigil of Geomancy, as im only going to be swapping to it after my bleeds are already stacked and the enemy has closed in. This will just chuck even more bleeds on them and make their life harder.
Your offhand weapon set is really up to you, but I’d avoid greatsword and focus.

Scepter is a decent option for the high confusion damage you can cause, but the fact that the amount of clones it generates is really high and that they override your WoC spamming clones is not good.

For Amulet, I personally like Carrion for the Additional Power and the Vitality to make your toughness and protection boons to really shine, but Shaman’s Amulet is also an option if you just want to focus on more toughness (Generating more condition damage and more overall stats from a single amulet) and the bonus healing power.
I wouldn’t recommend it due to you being rather vulnerable to condition damage yourself if you have little vitality, and Condition Removal on Heal isnt going to be enough, you would have to carry Null Field.

Mass Invisibility is taken because its awesome, enough said. Its also taken due to the way your damage is not bursty and you aren’t exactly having trouble surviving in a 1v1 scenario, so Moa really is redundant. Mass invisibility gives you a free stomp or revive in a firefight and becoming invisible while your conditions tick down on a foe is really mean. Time Warp is also an option, as your WoC spamming clones and iWarlock will really pump out the conditions and damage while within the area, but considering how fragile they are without Signet of Illusions, I wouldn’t recommend it.

This is the other build I use. It is a glass cannon condition based phantasm build.
It focuses on stacking a huuuuuge amount of bleeds and confusion on enemy targets and leaving them to die. It takes Phantasmal Fury, Phantasmal Strength and Phantasmal Haste to kick your phantasms into overdrive. The two phantasms I prefer using are Phantasmal Warden and Phantasmal Duelist, but using a Staff instead of Scepter/Focus is also an option, but due to a lower Power stat, your warlock wouldn’t hit as hard as the bleeds multiple warden hits would generate.

For utility skills, Signet of Illusions is a must, the bonus phantasm HP will keep them from dying in the face of a light breeze. Your second utility really should be Null Field, with a low Vitality stat, you really will need condition removal, Phantasmal Disenchanter is also an option, but Null Field’s use as a combo field for your Duelist to stack confusion is much more valuable (Should you use disenchanter, dont invest into -20% glamour duration.)

Your final slot is up to you, I prefer Feedback to mess with the ranged attackers which will give you hell, it is also a combo field and a glamour.
For my Elite i’m shamed to say that Moa is really a good option here, but Time Warp is also great. Moa’s ability to lock someone down and keep them from killing your phantasms is just too valuable, but you lack a stealth ability, so you will have to make sure your foe cannot evade when casting it.
Time Warp is a good alternative though outside of 1v1 scenarios, due to the Warp kicking your Warden into overdrive, which really adds up in the middle of a cluttered fight.

For runes, I prefer a mishmash of Krait, Afflicted and Centaur runes. Why? Because of the huge bleed duration boost you get, at all really adds up. Sigils, I go for +bleed duration on both Offhands and the Scepter, but going for Geomancy on the sword again, so you can instantly chuck another few bleeds on an enemy when they get into your sword range.

For amulet, I prefer Rampagers amulet if pure glass cannon, because of the huge amount of precision it grants as well as that wonderful condition damage. It also gives a small amount of vitality which comes in handy. If you want to be a bit tankier, consider a Rabid Amulet with a Rampager’s Jewel instead, it’ll give you a lot more toughness and a bit more condition damage at the loss of Vitality, Power and Precision.

Note: This build is somewhat improved due to the fact that the Pistol trait in the Dueling tree seems to improve the odds that your Phantasmal Duelist will trigger a projectile combo. I’m not sure whether or not its intended, but its making confusion builds viable, as they should be on a class all about confusion, so i’m not complaining.

Keep in mind that with a condition build, I’m fairly sure that anything that increases Condition damage (or things like +Bleed duration, etc) only affect conditions/bleeds that -YOU- apply. I do not believe, regrettably, that Sharper Image bleeds from your Illusions are affected by +duration at all. If someone will refute this with hard data I’d be a very happy Mesmer. Until then, I’ll be avoiding Krait/Centaur/Afflicted runes.

After a very long hours of playing sPvP and long hours of testing a dps, I have found a superb dps build which melts guardians in seconds. However I’m not sure if I should post it here as its going to bring even more complains about the class, or a super quick nerf.

After receiving a private messages from people asking for a link to build, and getting a whispers in game from my opponents that I’m a noob by playing a mesmer and to roll a real class, I have decided to share my build with others to let them suffer even more. Also I’m not playing as much as used to, as I don’t like I’m not getting rewarded system with a better PvP gear. I have named this build “The Mortal”. This is the link:

Basically this is the glass cannon high burst, and condition damage phantasm build. The link will not show you a condition damage stat which is 769. I have decided to fit the condition damage by reducing a little bit of power which is easier countered by toughness. There is nothing better to see this guardians sweating to survive when confusion helps to kill themselves. The high amount of critical chance and condition damage is a very good compensation for reduced power. The trick is to master to survive. I leave the abilities for you to decide what you prefer. However signet of domination is a must for this build. I like the signet of inspiration as it gives you a random passive boost, which helped me survive many times when it blocked that killing blow. I believe it has a hidden power, and I’m aware you are not getting a boon as soon as the combat starts, but after a 10 seconds. Moa nothing to add, only that it has a really long cooldown, and can be easy evaded. This is why you want to use it just after your decoy. See that necro around with loads of minions? just use it on him as it removes all of them and place them all on the cooldown (what a joke). Sometimes I prefer mass invisibility as it can help someone to survive or bring him back to the fight from the ground. I think thats all. If you want to compare this build with other high burst builds, then test your phantasm duelist on the heavy armor golem and watch how many shoots it takes to kill one. Any questions how to counter other class abilities or anything PM me or ask on the forum or whisper in game and I will try to answer. Enjoy and have a good time with “The Mortal” build. Please give some feedback if you use it.

Attachments:

Keep in mind that with a condition build, I’m fairly sure that anything that increases Condition damage (or things like +Bleed duration, etc) only affect conditions/bleeds that -YOU- apply. I do not believe, regrettably, that Sharper Image bleeds from your Illusions are affected by +duration at all. If someone will refute this with hard data I’d be a very happy Mesmer. Until then, I’ll be avoiding Krait/Centaur/Afflicted runes.

Hey so i was looking at Ginsu’s build and i loved it cause as a fellow mesmer i feel that we r not the class for killing…kinda feels like we the most hated class lol i want to run this build as a pure support build…SO Ginsu i am not stealing ur build i just cant find away to change what u have to make it different except for runes i am thinking of useing the mercy rune for rezing ppl which i like being a combat medic style build… and running soilder jewel for more tough/power/vitality. Pls comment on what can be changed also what other runes i can run and jewels

Decoy, Null Field, and Signet of Illusions (or Mirror Images, depending on how tanky I want my clones to be).

Itemize enough Precision to get your Crit rate at least over 35% and you’ll get a crit roughly once per Spatial Surge. This is kinda important, because when you trait Deceptive Evasion, your crits fuel your endurance (thanks to the minor Dueling trait Critical Infusion), which in turn become clones. After that, do what you want in terms of balancing Power and Vitality/Toughness, but I like just going all out Power/Precision/Crit damage – this isn’t a build that does a lot of Condition Damage. Basically, you should be getting enough crits to keep Vigor up constantly without having to trait Vigorous Revelation.

With Ill. Celerity and GS Training, GS#2’s cooldown should be about 5 or so seconds. This is your bread & butter. Simply put, this build emphasizes generating clones quickly, stacking might and vulnerability, and doing big damage with frequent shatters.

In addition, this build requires very little tweaking to be dungeon-ready. Just swap Mender’s Purity with Medic’s Feedback since you’ll probably be rezzing your teammates more frequently than they’ll be rezzing you (at least, that how it usually goes for me in dungeons…). That and using Feedback on nasty ranged mobs will make everyone’s life easier.

For WvW, I like to use this build for scouting as well. Mesmers do well against anything 1v1 and we’re just as good at escaping our foes when we’re outgunned. Just swap in Veil for the Signet instead and you’ll feel stealthier than a Thief.

The general idea is to keep your foe at range by keeping him distracted with your clones and iBerserker. Use your Ill. Wave to push mobs away, and dodge whenever your meter is full. Crippling Dissipation will help you kite foes whether you let a mob take out a clone or you just overwrite one.

I use Sword/focus for my swap set, but I find I rarely have to – usually its just to unload a Blurred Frenzy on a group of mobs, maybe summon a warden, and then back to GS.

Summary: This build is heavily focused on keeping 3 clones up as much as possible and high crit with the sword. It can also be played with staff to round off mid to long range offense/support.

Trait Breakdown:Crippling Dissipation – Helps in the kiting dept.

Critical Infusion – Fuels Deceptive Evasion.

Blade Training – You want as much precision as possible. Reduces already short sword CDs, and ups your clone generation.

Deceptive Evasion – This is probably one of the more important traits. When combined with Debilitating Dissipation (sword clones), it ups your damage greatly. It also provides you with a means to constantly maintain 3 clones. It contributes so much to clone generation that I find myself using decoy and mirror images rarely. It also grants you another ability to overwrite clones which can prove invaluable when micromanaging them and maximizing condition and damage.

Desperate Decoy – To maximize precision. Synergy with Ether Feast. You might even want to forego the utility Decoy for another skill.

Debilitating Dissipation – Source of either bleeding, vulnerability, or weakness. To maximize this, you want the AI to kill sword clones. Triggered by overwriting as well.

Chaotic Dampening – The staff synergizes with the sword and vice versa. In this build you will be switching back and forth (as often as possible), and will want short CDs.

Illusionist Celerity – Speeds up clone generation, enough said.

Compounding Power – You will constantly have 3 clones up, this just ups your damage even more.

Honorable Mentions:Illusionary Elasticity – One of better traits for staff wielding Mesmers. If you must have this skill though, you can forego either 10 domination or 10 precision to get Illusionary Elasticity.

Illusionary Defense – If you are having trouble surviving, you can use this in place of either Debilitating Dissipation or Chaotic Dampening.

Heal/Utility/Elite Breakdown:Ether Feast – You are pumping out clones constantly, this has the shortest CD of all the healing skills and just makes sense.

Decoy – This is another source of clone generation, breaks stun, and has synergy with Ether Feast. Because of Deceptive Decoy trait, you can swap this out for something else.

Mirror Images – Yet another source of clones, also breaks stun. Again, because of deceptive evasion and critical infusion, this can be swapped out for something else.

Signet of Midnight – Has one of the shorter cooldowns for signets. Actively applies blind in immediate area for survivability. Increases boon duration.

Time Warp – Arguably Mesmer’s best elite, and one of the best in the game. Provides yet another ethereal combo field.

Various Notes:

Mesmer’s are too squishy, why even use sword at all?
It’s true, Mesmer’s are pretty squishy. However, the Mesmer has a slew of damage mitigation abilities. Whenever you have a sword you either want to be inside of a Chaos Storm, have Chaos Armor, be distorted, stealthed, blocking, dodge, or kite away. It’ll be a balancing act managing your clones and maintaining those states at all times. You will constantly be active and unfortunately are not allowed to stand in one place and auto-attack the whole time.

Why not Signet of Illusions?
Currently this skill is bugged. Also if it properly worked, it would make Crippling and Debilitating Dissipation less effective. You can keep up with clone death and replace one just as quick.

If I don’t want Decoy or Mirror Images, what other skills are there?
Skills still effective with this build are Blink (breaks stun and maneuverability), Null Field (combo field and condition removal), and Feedback (combo field and useful for ranged).

Why no mention of Shatter and when should I use it?
Shatter should only be reserved for last resort (specifically distortion) or when you know the last Mind Wrack will kill. Shatter makes Crippling and Debilitating Dissipation less effective.

Note, that this is a build base 50 SP are needed, the rest 20 You can modify it as You want.

I’m using it for PvE (leveling and dungeons) it has a god damage output, and You can modify some traits to even more survive ability.

Spending points in “Dueling” tree gives to this build more crit-chance and crit damage, but what is essential:
Critical Infusion, great for having perma vigor regen if you go for high crit chance as I do.
Phantasmal Fury, benefits the next passive trait wich is Sharper Images – every Illusion crit is a stack of bleed.

With “Inspiration” I want to boost Illusion/Phantasm survive ability and makeing them grant regeneration.

The last is “Illusions” to benefit from lower cooldown on all clone/illusion skills, more clones more damage (3% for each clone = 9%) and makeing the illusions cast abilites faster.

5 more points in dueling to enchance the range of iDuelist, and lower the CC pistol skill.
15 more in Inspiration becouse a dead player is no use to the team.
Compounding Celerity gives the Mesmer more mobility wich he lacks.
Phantasmal Strenght does NOT stack with Empowered Illusion so You can’t have +30% damage for your illusions.
Shattered Condition will help You survive if You get too much of condition stacks.

For utility:
1. Blink is the skill I like the most, it brake’s CC and gives range between You and Your foe.
2. Archane Thievery – if the boss has some good boons to steal or
Decoy – Stun breaker + stealth
3. Signet of Illusions – for more HP 50% (+20% from traits)

If the damage output is to high, and the illusions die too often i skip both bonus HP bonuses and switch them with Null Field/Mirror Images and Persisting Images to Menred’s Purity. It depends on the fight.

For the healing I always use Ether Feast, becouse keeping illusions/clones it crucial.

Elite never changes Time Warp is a great cooldown for mobs that have to go down fast! Mainly it’s troublesome trash.

For this I am using Mantras (for Restorative Mantras), which works well with Superior Rune of Water (AOE heal everytime you use one of your 2 Mantra charges). You can also spam either the damaging Mantra or the Daze Mantra (whichever you feel is more appropriate for the content you are facing, though Daze has a higher CD) for more healing upon recharge. Sigil of Superior Water on the weapons mean more healing in the interim.

My secondary focus is Glamours as 2 of the Glamours (Feedback, Null Field) are excellent support skills in their own right. I took Confusing Enchantments and Dazzling Glamours to make them more potent (confusion deals damage to them, blind makes it so they miss whatever they were attacking anyway in Null Field. Adds confusion to the reflective damage in Feedback) and I got Glamour Mastery to cut down on their CDs. You can also choose between Temporal Enchanter and Warden’s Feedback if you want them to last longer.

Using this we are specced for a combination of healing and condition damage. Condition damage gives us a good fallback while our healing abilities aren’t needed and/or are on cooldown/recharge. Due to Staff’s nature as a more passive weapon, we can setup our clone + Phantasms (Staff 2-3) and drop a Chaos Storm for boons/conditions (Staff 5) for persistent effects while we switch out to Scepter/Focus for either burst Confusion (Scepter 3, Scepter 1 + Confusing Cry, further boosted by Illusionary Retribution), cripple/swiftness/displacement/combo field (Focus 4) or reflection (Focus 4-5, 5 also provides DPS). During all of this, we will be watching for instances where we can help heal (Mantra charging, Mantra heal + Sigil) and laying down a Glamour (Null Field, Feedback) in the appropriate situations for AoE Confusion/Blind

With this build we should always be busy and should always have a heal/support skill available, while doing other useful things (due to persistent Phantasms/clones)

NOTE: This has NOT been tested personally by me. I am theorycrafting this and intend to try it at some point.

3. as for wep, obviously you should use staff and sword + pistal, because it makes u tanky and u burst very well too at same time

when looking for staff, u wanna have Power and condition on the properties
when looking for sword and pistal, u wanna have Power and precision on the properties
for armor setup, u wanna go for power and precision 3rd property can be either crit dmg or condition, so up to you

See how broken mesmer is? Like how the fk could u give this class the burst, and the CC and decent tankability?

5. there r so many ways to dps with this class but in pve, the most dmg setup is with 3x phantasmal duelists. Then u just sit back and auto with your staff for further condition stacking. I have 3 man’d shatterer the dragon easily with this setup.

6. What do u do in pvp
oh god u have no idea how I wanna stress how fking OP my class is. The only class I ever had trouble with, is against another mesmer with a similar build of mine and oh lawd what a nightmare.

on even ground 1v1, u should always be able to roflstomp the other player.
1. run up to target, with chaos armor, phantasmal warlock, phase retreat. (so now u have a shield and 2 clones)
2. activate signet of domination for the 2sec stun and swap to sword and pistal
3. cast phantasmal duelist as near as possible to targets location
4. cast magic bullet for another 2 sec stun
5. cast illusionary leap and wait for that clone to jump on him, then swap immediately for the 2 sec root
6. cast blurred frenzy for massive dps

normally that usually would kill anybody squishy, if he still has bit hp left, and all your CCs r on cd, just swap back to staff and chase him with auto for further condition and once your CCs are up again, go CC them for sure kill, or just shatter all your clones.

now if its 1v2 situation, np, just summon balthazar hounds for a super fast quick dps kill and down the 1st target then either proceed to execute or go for the other target, or just simply “decoy” if your hp is too low and wait for your heals to come back up and continue thekitten

mesmer is just so kitten OP, and whenever I’m playing with my friend (whos lvl 80 guard, we were able to 2v4 most of the time in WvW)

Weapon: GS only, I don’t use a secondary (yes I’m probably a minority but I like to keep it simple)

Gear: Berserker weapons and armor, I actually slot with Ruby orbs because they are more consistent, Scholar is better but only if you can stay above 90% health. Weapon is slotted with fire sigil because after thorough testing on the Mist dummies it seems to offer the most DPS increase, because with the decent crit rate (50%+) the AOE attack happens almost as fast as the CD expires (5 seconds).

Skills: All mantras

Reasoning: Maxed domination and dueling gives the highest power, crit rate and crit damage (which is currently 103% on my mesmer), and GS gives the highest ranged DPS. Greatsword Training trait boosts that. Skills are all mantras to maximize the effect Empowering Mantras, with all 4 mantras activated I get a 16% boost in damage just from that. 10 in illusions was for Compounding Power, with Deceptive Evasion its very easy to maintain 3 illusions, so that’s an extra 9% damage there as well.

Conclusion: I just starting using this build so I’m not sure how effective it is, but my general impression is that it hits extremely hard (especially the crits holy crap) and stuff just goes down really really fast. Pretty sure you can’t squeeze more ranged DPS out of the Mesmer (if you can think of a way, let me know!)

here’s what im using for spvp.
i went for good mobility and the ability to rapidly disengage from the fight. Since i play hot-joins, the help from the team isnt often expected to come, and I dont like to die.

I use the same build for everything atm. In dungeons i’ll change out my utilities as needed.

20(V, X)-15(II)-0-15(IV)-20(III, X)

Weapons: GS and Sword/Pistol

Most of the time my skills are skills:
ether feast
Feedback
decoy
blink
mass inv

For gear I focus on Berserker/rampager gear (Power and Precision). This build is mostly glass cannon but I seem to survive quite well thanks to the utility spells.

I usually start out summoning iDuelist and swapping to greatsword before the combat cd comes into play. Then #2 and #4 and sit back watch em die. Add a feedback if needed to burn down faster. For long fights I’ll summon as needed to keep phantams up or atleast 3 illusions to give me the 9% boost. I only shatter if I know it will kill them or need the distortion to escape.

Usage Summary:
If you have played Mesmer for a while you realize by now we are not a hard hitting class. Most of our damage comes in the repetition of attacks from Phantasms, Cloans and ourselves. All that aside we are a fun class to play and we provide more targets for enemies to bang on. This build is about spamming as many Duelists as you can. Only shattering when your finishing an opponent off or if your in trouble pop distortion. Other then that there is no need to shatter with this build. For defense not a huge amount of attributes are placed in toughness or vitality. Rather the idea of this build is to hit and run away. When your in deep trouble, cloak and run and hide. The idea here is instead of trying to soak up more damage, you instead try to avoid getting hit.

Use the sigils that increase endurance regeneration. If you find your self in a situation where you don’t have enough phantasms out to build up good DPS, then you can switch over to a quick shatter by dodging twice, then cloak and shatter.

If you can get all three Duelists out which is pretty hard in most cases, they do almost 8000 dmg in less then 5 seconds.

Most scenarios you will have at least 2 Duelists out and some other cloan, preferably a Berserker.

When at range your almost always moving faster then everyone else because of Compounding Celerity: You move faster for each active illusion. Spam your Great sword at them until you think another duelists ready. Then switch over to sword and pistol, cast your Duelist, and then go get up close and personal with your target. Don’t hit Blurred Frenzy right away. Wait till you see what their does and then pop it just as your Duelist starts to fire. Of course there are always cases where you use Blurred Frenzy for defensive purposes.

Try to avoid using Mirror Blade and Illusionary Leap unless you have to because neither of the cloans they produce do good damage. Use them tactically when you need to snare or double hit.

These traits are interchangeableAlternatively you can switch Phantasmal Haste out for Illusionary Elasticity and hit an extra target with both your Mirror Blade and your Magic Bullet. You can also swap Blade Training for Phantasmal Fury

The more your crit in this build the more you regain your endurance, the more you can dodge and create more cloans.

This is a build designed to optimize Phantom Damage while putting the mesmer safely at max range.

The primary weapon of this build is the greatsword and much of the damage comes from Phantasmal Berzerker, which can do upwards of 2600-5200 damage to mobs in an AoE line.

The high vitality and toughness from knight gear makes the mesmer tough to kill and with this setup Phantasmal Berzerker is on a 12 second CD.

General strategy for using this build is to stand at 900m to gain might from Mirrored Blade. Start by immediately summoning Phantasmal Zerker, Defender, then weapon swap and summon a Gunner.

You will weapon swap frequently to summon gunner and each time you do, you can channel confusing images and blind/CC enemies with scepter 2 and magic bullet before swapping back to GS.

Each time a Phantasm dies and your on CD, create a clone to upkeep your three images in play using mirrored blade (and to buff might).

With the proper gear this build can push the crit rating on your phantoms to over 70-80%, causes your Phantasms to deal 39% more damage, bleed on crit, zerker cripples, confuse enemies and combo confusing bolts off feedback (or null field if you choose), and also gives phantasms 50% then 20% health from traits and signet of illusions.

In addition the high toughness through knight gear makes the phantoms even harder to kill.

With a combination of 3 gunners/zerkers in play, the mesmer can deal a very high amount of damage.

This build is flexible against melee unfriendly bosses by giving the mesmer the option of summoning gunners instead of zerkers to support greatsword beam damage.

In addition, the build also offers team support through feedback/null field, regen from phantoms, CC abilities through scepter 2 and pistol 5, and increased damage through might and time warp.

So far I’ve been able to clear every dungeon effectively with this build and feel that the high damage, survival, and utility contributes well to any team combination.

Also the high crit pretty much gives the mesmer perma vigor, allowing the mesmer to avoid almost any harmful attack at double the efficiency.

I usually only shatter if the enemy is incredibly low on health.

When using the scepter be careful not to replace any phantasms with the scepter autoattack. With the CD on weapon swapping you should be able to summon Gunner, use magic bullet, blind with scepter counter, then channel confusing images. By the time that is up, the GS swap should be ready.

While I generally designed this build for PVE, it works well in PvP as optimized zerkers can be spawned on top of castle walls and will absolutely ruin defenders.

For PvP, I recommend chasing the slot skills to include Null Field, Blink, and Feedback.

so, it’s a kind of phantom’s build.. i’m new bout mesmer’s world.. now i’m rolling it at the 25th livel.. so, the build is a precision/ critical one.. because of low cc for clones and phantoms u aren’t alone, never. ( every dodge create a clone!! )
i donno if my phantoms share my precision/ power/critical, but with my 77% of critical chance, their fury and 178% of damage they should rox very well.

should use mind wrack whenever u can do it and swap scepter to use third skill..
every time u interrupt an enemy u’ll do in fury and there is a great spam of confusion..
only one regret: i have not malicius sorcery

i created this build for pvp ( expecially in wvsw ).. skills like berserker phantom are too much usefull.. if u have some advices, please, tell me

A general PvE/Dungeon build utilizing the mesmers ability to keep up sustained vigor for constant dodging. The build is a hybrid shatter/phantasm build, even though the only phantasm that’s good is iWarden, the amount of damage it can pull off is amazing. http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQNAW8dlwzKqXVTqGaNJypCJHqHan39dkK0alUgbXIA;TEAg0A
If you want to sacrifice damage for utility, you can drop domination and put the rest into inspiration with Glamour Mastery.
For the weapon sigils and armor runes, I’m a little unsure, it’s based on preferences, but I’d advise going precision/power gear because the crits proc Critical Infusion for that important vigor.
For utilities, you can swap them around based on the situation- Blink over Feedback for melee mobs, for example.
General Strategy:
I start off with Chaos Storm and while inside use Phase Retreat to gain Chaos Armor.
Chaos Storm is an amazing ability, applying you with a plethora of great buffs especially aegis, this can be a life saving skill.
Mind Wrack is your most important skill, use it for this first clone. Mind Wrack along with Illusionary Persona will apply long lasting vigor buffs, for you team as well, and cause massive damage.
Switch over and cast iWarden, the warden will combo confusing bolts applying heavy stacks of confusion to nearby enemies and apply bleeds with massive aoe damage.
Blurred Frenzy, Utilities, Temporal Curtain- which can pull mobs without aggro btw-, are used whenever needed.
Dodge when necessary and frequently, I make sure I have enough endurance for when I need, otherwise I will dodge to get clones for Shatter fodder.
Mind Wrack phantasms when they outlive their usefulness, iWarden finishing his attack or iWarlock after this initial attack.
Other Shatter skills are generally unused unless the situation calls for it. If your mind wrack is on recharge and you desperately need vigor, use Cry of Frustration. Interrupting needed? use Diversion. Distortion can be a life saver when you need to pull off an important heal.
Shattering in melee range is important to pull of Illusionary Persona, so this build requires being very reactive.

This is my PVE leveling build. This ranged Mesmer build works great for solo play or in group play in PvE. It will allow you to take out mobs easily from a distance while maintaining a high survival rate.

Was kinda hard to make it and tbh its half build. Reason i chose those traits and so far i didnt move its cos of mayor traits. Youll probably think why i didnt took any glamor trait if i use 2 but the thing is im allways changing them before fights. Also its the same with skills. I have all skills unlocked and change them all the time depending on the fight. This gives me the ability to switch to a stealth build if ppl want me to use portal to skip mobs or pick some1 or to become a more DPS oriented build using phantasms, bleeds from clones and shaters. Reflction is a great source of dmg also, some mobs practically kill them selfs.

Bouncing elasticity its also a leftover from my staff days, but its awesome with number 2 greatsword skill also and i dont seem to be able to give up on less shatters cooldowns :P I dont know if i might take it out soon tho.

Gear wise since theres not PvE gear in editor its hard to make it. Im still not sure if ill go a power/prec/cond build (riht now more on here) or power/prec/crit dmg build. The reason i use condition dmg instead of crit dmg its to make ilusions more usefull while they are up.

I have yet to see anyone with this build or post something about it so I’ll share mine.

How to use
The trick to this build is to always initiate with your sceptre and pistol at a range distance. Depending on who I’m coming up to I will typically initiate with Confusing Images, or Phantasmal Duelist. Also the sooner you cast Phantasmal Defender the less time you have to spend casting it in the heat of battle. Once you initiate on your target dont forget you also have a block/blind skill that can be useful before switching weapons. Now before you switch weapons it can be beneficial to use your Magic Bullet skill to stun the enemy so you have the oppurtunity to switch weapons. Then once your Swords are out, you can initiate with Blurred Frenzy if the enemy is within striking distance/stunned or use Illusionary Leap for the slow/clone or Phantasmal Swordsman for DPS. At one point or another use those skills, the Phantasmal Swordsman will do lots of damage and when it’s out with the Phantasmal Duelist it adds for one hell of a combo. For those who dont realize it your Phantasms will do maybe 1/5 to 1/3 of your dmg. Blurred Frenzy is a strong move against other melee classes like warriors and theives, and I would advice using it strategically like when they’re doing their big DPS skills so you can evade it and attck them. Dont forget to heal, I’d suggest using it as often as your can. The Utility skills are Blink, which is good for sticky situations like if you’re getting overwhelmed by a melee class you can either blink or use distortion. The Phantasmal defender is good because it will allow you to become a little bit more tanky. The sigil is an extra stun and is useful when you want to interupt a revival, catch up to someone to use Blurred Frenzy. When you’re fighting with your swords out dont forget to switch back and use Magic Bullet every so often, this build has 2 stuns so use them to your advantage. Things to note
this set up works best when you constantly switch between both weapons because swords do not have any range so if you hope to not get kited use Magic Bullet or blink or the sigil. Also after you stun an enemy I’d advise using Blurred Frenzy because that will do most of your DPS or cast P.Swordsman. I tend to not use Mind Wrack that often, I will ocassionally do it at the end of combat, and I like to combo with Diversion after my stun and use the daze from Illusionary Riposte, this will maximize the CC on your enemy and allow for you to use a heal or just DPS more.

I have yet to find the optimal armor set up and weapon enchants but I would advise maximizing crit/dmg and such

really good ( like my one XD ).. but in the second set i prefer GS than scepter.. cause at the third attack u delete a copy/phantasm, to create a clone.. too bad..
but u can have confusion spam.. and it’s awesome.. maybe with a phantasm duelist with a ethereal combo!!

30 30 – - 10, in full zerker for wvw and pve i push 60% crit chance and 104 to 108 crit damage. fragile build but i load my utilitys with outs, decoy, blink, portal, MI etc. I love time warp but usally roll with MI in WvW just for the extra invis.

I love this build. I have a 49% crit rate which gives lots of vigor for dodge clones, plus you can dodge more which is a defensive bonus.

I find the mantras useful, except for the heal mantra which doesn’t heal enough to be worth the effort. As a result I slot the ether feast heal.

Damage output is excellent (+12% from the three mantras, +9% from three clones, lots of crits with high +crit damage).

Survivability is buffed a bit with Valkyrie armor and Knights jewelry. This brings the toughness and vitality numbers up to 1300, while keeping power at 2000+ and precision at 1800+. This build really doesn’t need more crit chance and the power is already good.

Lots of fun — once you get use to it, you’ll find yourself dodging all the time for clone production. It’s the fastest clone production I’ve seen.

Part of me thinks that someone in ANet was thinking “hey, wanna see something funny? Watch this…”

I was tired of the phantasm spamming builds and tried something totally different and it works very well. Burst damage comes from confusion (sustained 1-14+ stacks) applied mainly by shattering (f1,f2 and f3). Sustained damage by bleeds/burns/… applied by staff, clones.
It pops clones like there is no tomorrow and can stealth quite often. I had great success with it in tpvp in almost all situations.
In big group fights all the aoe shatters deal good condition damage while staff brings some more aoe, conditions and support.
Taking a node from 1 or even 2 enemies is very possible with that beefy setup while they destroy themselves.
Defing a node is possible too.
Npc killing just fine, but slower than other builds.

If you have not tried a condition/shatter build, test it! I t has a deeper learning curve as phantasm spamming but with high reward.

signet of domination, mantra of distraction and moa transformation are obvious in the way of dominating opponents. Arcane thievery is both a good defensive and offensive cooldown in that it steals opponents boons and give them your conditions.

the mainhand sword primary chain is good for removing boons, offhand sword illusionary riposte is awesome in that it’s a defensive cooldown mixed with shutdown capabilities. illusionary counter is the same really, except blind isnt as effective as a daze but still a good way to prevent an enemy from doing damage, and of course magic bullet for its stun and daze. on top of that, a 2 second distortion on an 8 second cooldown gives a fascinating amount of defensive capabilties to the mesmer, while all the skills together can grant massive numbers of illusions that not only confuse when killed and grant a random condition, but they are also great for shattering too, as you’ll confuse your opponent as well as do damage or any of the other shatters. I figured retaliation upon cry of confusion would be an awesome thing to have as an extra cooldown.

alas, i have found the old mesmer in the new one, and i am thoroughly satisfied.